Flexible containers are commonly used for containment and delivery of medical fluids. These containers are generally single use bags manufactured from one or more types of plastic film and include connectors for receiving or dispensing contents of the containers. The containers are often used in life science applications and in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals to contain liquid raw materials prior to or during manufacture; in other cases such containers may be used to contain the finished product. The contents of these containers may be precious, particularly when used in large scale production. It is not unusual for even small containers to contain material worth many thousands of dollars.
Accordingly, it is beneficial to try to determine in advance whether the connector for a container may have an abnormality or defect that might result in loss of material through the connector.
One common solution employed for testing connector integrity is to use a vacuum test. The vacuum test applies a vacuum to the connector to test whether the connector will provide an effective seal. A defective part is indicated by a vacuum drop on a dial indicator of the testing equipment. The vacuum test only identifies very large connector seal leaks or missing seals; it does not identify small leaks in a seal provided by the connector. Additionally, the vacuum test may not identify a faulty seal because the set-up of the vacuum test can allow the connector to close the leak which does not flag the faulty connector.
These and other disadvantages are found in known systems and methods for testing the integrity of seals for connectors.